


Seen

by akire_yta



Series: prompt ficlets [684]
Category: Bill & Ted (Movies), The Old Guard (Movie 2020)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-07
Updated: 2020-11-07
Packaged: 2021-03-08 19:47:37
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 723
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27442177
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/akire_yta/pseuds/akire_yta
Summary: trcunning askedThe Old Guard/Bill & Ted, time travel + immortals = excellent, dude!
Series: prompt ficlets [684]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/53353
Comments: 2
Kudos: 14





	Seen

**Author's Note:**

> I really wanna see a proper B&T writer tackle this, because this prompt is most excellent!

Bill and Ted have a history presentation due, well, soon, and they’re still short on examples.

“Our colonial bias is most bogus, Ted,” Bill says, face squished against the glass of the booth.

“Totally,” Ted agrees and dials up Mongolia.

Years later, when memory is fading, Ted will remember the heat of the sun and the smell of rust that lingered after a battle. But for now, he’s seventeen and facing military school if he fails one more class. So he leads the way carefully across the battle field to the knot of people surrounding Genghis Khan to make his case for a very consensual temporary temporal kidnapping.

There was a woman, standing on the side of people all talking at once, and Ted finds himself looking at her as the only person not yelling.

She’s still staring at them through the glass as they crowd in and dial up California.

Ted feels very, very seen.

* * *

Bill and Ted felt like a million bucks; they’d passed history, met some very bodacious babes, and were destined to write The Song.

Not bad for a sunny afternoon’s work, worthy of a most excellent high five.

“But Bill, we promised to return everyone to their own time. And it is most heinous to back out of a promise.” 

“Agreed!” Ted was used to the thrum of the time machine now, and he spread his fingers on the glass as electricity cracked and time began to streak past outside. He could set a melody to this…But before he could fully form the notes in his mind, the time ship landed with a thump. “When are we, Bill?”

The doors banged open and Notre Dame Cathedral towered above them. “I promised Joan she’d be first,” Bill said as they all spilt out onto the stones of the square.

Ted knew getting the gang back into the booth was gonna take a few minutes; may as well admire the view. He’s staring up at the spire when he feels eyes boring into his skull from behind him.

She’s dressed for the era, but that axe on her back is the same, as are the eyes. She wasn’t an ancestor holding an heirloom, Ted knew in his bones.

This was the same woman, with the same intense stare. Her two companions looked as confused as Ted felt.

He raised his hand in greeting.

“Ted!” Bill yelled. “Beethoven’s getting righteously pissed we’re in France, let’s go.”

“Coming,” Ted yelled, then turned back.

The woman and her friends had gone.

* * *

Ted’s lying on his bed, staring up at the ceiling, humming snatches of tune he felt when the booth was thrumming through time. Maybe the middle C–

There was a bang on his window. “It’s open, Bill,” he called out, fingers still sketching chords in the air.

The window slid open, so unlike the way Bill banged it up as far as it could go. Bill was already sitting up when the woman rolled in and pressed a blade to his throat.

Ted said a word he’d get his mouth soaped out for if his dad was there to hear. “Quiet,” she hissed in his ear. “It’s you, isn’t it? The one with the box that vanishes? They all said you took them to the future then took them home.”

“Who…?” he gulped out, aware of the blade pressed into his throat.

“All the ones you took I talked to them all. And now I need you to take me back. 1612 maybe. Around then. Early even. I just need to–.”

Ted forced his shoulders to relax. When he gently touched her arm, she flinched, but let him push the knife away. “We sent the phone booth away,” he told her gently. “But maybe our friend Rufus can help? Rufus is most righteous.” Ted went to air guitar and thought better of it.

She did still have the knife in her hand.

“You don’t have it? Oh my god,” she muttered, hand holding the knife dropping to her side. “I can’t fix it. I really have failed her.”

“Who?” Ted asked. But between one blink and the next, she was gone. Ted went to the window, but there was nothing there but the familiar street and Bill ambling up the drive.

“Bogus,” Ted sighed and went out to go greet Bill.


End file.
